Dalian Intermediate People’s Court in the northeast province of Liaoning retried Robert Lloyd Schellenberg and handed down the death penalty, the court said in a brief statement on its website on Monday.

The case is likely again to test relations between Beijing and Ottawa, which have been tense since Canada’s arrest of a Chinese executive at the request of the United States in December, followed by China’s detention of two Canadian citizens on suspicion of endangering state security.